“I have participated in the financing of all impact loans on EthicHub”
We spoke with Eloy Rodríguez and his experience as our currently most active and loyal user of the EthicHub crowdlending platform.
(Leer en Español: http://bit.ly/Eloy-EthicHub)
Eloy clearly admits that his initial intention was to find the best profitability for his money, “money that has cost me a lot of work to earn and save.” But at the same time he intends to achieve “the greatest possible positive impact on society, knowing that with my money I can improve people’s lives. The more, the better. ” And as it happens he found these two investment premises in EthicHub, and helped to finance all the projects of Mexican coffee growers in the rural communities of Las Delicias, San Rafael or La Boquilla.
On July 9, 2018, shortly after the EthicHub platform went live, he made his first investment and in total “I have invested in 7 projects, worth 17,243 Mexican pesos (approximately € 776)”. Of this amount, “3,399 Mexican pesos (€ 153) were reinvested”, meaning that “I have invested again the repaid capital plus the interests associated with it.” The average number of days that Eloy had the capital on loan was 143 days, receiving an average interest of 5.89% (EthicHub offers an annual interest of 15%). Eloy compares the profitability obtained on EthicHub with other CrowdLending platforms with positive impact in which he also participated; “On these other platforms, the average interest of all the projects I collaborated with was 4.81% in 1597 days, which represents an annual interest rate of only 1.1%…”
Eloy feels very identified with the objectives of EthicHub and the model developed to “help small unbanked coffee producers in Mexico to improve their lives in a sustainable, but also profitable way” and in this sense it is positive that the calculation of interests is always established in the local currency of the farmers, “regardless of the variation of the cryptocurrency that is used to make the loan, which for now is Ether”. A circumstantial fact because in subsequent developments of the platform, EthicHub will incorporate the DAI, a stable currency, that will eliminate the frictions associated with the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
A somewhat complicated start
EthicHub is a collaborative financing platform, native to Blockchain technology, that connects small unbanked farmers with users from all over the world. These small producers can only use their crops to finance the little cash they find in their communities. This shortage of money makes it extraordinarily expensive, so much that they are forced to take on local cash loans at interest rates exceeding 100% per year. Blockchain allows to create an ecosystem where all the participants gain from the relationship and optimise the current models with the use of technology. On one hand, because investors opt for 15% annual returns supporting projects based on the real and productive economy. On the other hand because small farmers now have a new financing tool at much lower and more accessible rates.
However, becoming a user of the platform “has been the most complicated part, although once you manage to overcome this difficulty, you start to gain confidence and it is as simple as the use of digital banking”. The difficulties referred to by Eloy are those associated with becoming crypto users and acquiring the first cryptocurrencies. “At first everything is doubt; Where to buy the first ETHERS ?, where to keep them?” But fortunately doubts are not insurmountable obstacles. “To start you can try the friendly exchanges that allow the purchase of cryptocurrencies without registering, with a simple credit card” and advises browsing through different Exchanges to compare exchange prices, rates, how much they charge us for each transaction … AND then, “choose the wallet where we want to store our cryptocurrencies because it is essential to operate with the EthicHub platform.” And at this point he insists on something fundamental that he never tires of repeating, “remember that the 12 words that allow us to access our wallet at all times must be saved in digital and physical format, without these 12 words everything may be lost”.
Over time the user experience will improve, “when EthicHub includes the crypto purchase service automatically on the platform, although today anyone can try small amounts using a credit card.” Currently EthicHub allows up to a total of €1000 by using a card, hence avoiding to buy Ethers at an exchange. And given his excellent relationship with the EthicHub team, he adds some more information: “they are now working to integrate the services of an exchange office within the EthicHub platform itself.”
This fruitful relationship with the EthicHub team and knowing them in person, has been very important to become the reference “EthicHubber” and venture to use the platform. “I understand that if you do not know the project personally, it is hard to believe that a model is possible in which you can obtain such good profitability while producing a great impact.” And that has been his motivation to grant us this interview, “to help spread the message about this project and facilitate confidence in it by talking about my positive experience as an investor.”
Thank you very much Eloy!
Here you can watch a video summary of the interview with Eloy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdxu39vVrt0
If you want to share your experience as an EthicHub user, write to info@ethichub.com or talk to one of our admins on telegram: https://t.me/ethichubeng
